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A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law

The financial politics of the European Union (EU) have been highly debated ever since the 2008 crisis, which left some European countries in financial turmoil. One part of the European financial policy has been the purchase of government bonds through the European Central Bank. The most vocal critic...

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Main Author: Rademann, Philipp
Other Authors: Ally, Nurina
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Law 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Rademann, Philipp
author2 Ally, Nurina
author_browse Ally, Nurina
Rademann, Philipp
author_facet Ally, Nurina
Rademann, Philipp
author_sort Rademann, Philipp
collection Thesis
description The financial politics of the European Union (EU) have been highly debated ever since the 2008 crisis, which left some European countries in financial turmoil. One part of the European financial policy has been the purchase of government bonds through the European Central Bank. The most vocal critics of this policy have for a long time emerged from Europe's biggest economy – Germany. A case against the purchase of government bonds was eventually brought to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (FCC). The FCC referred the matter to the European Court of Justice, which in 2018 upheld the practice and found it legal. In May of 2020 the FCC went against the European Court of Justice and pronounced the practice of purchasing government bonds as well as the decision upholding it to be ultra vires. Although there have been other domestic courts within the EU that have overruled EU law, last years's verdict was unique in its blatant defiance of the European institutions and the primacy of EU Law. This paper analyses the two judgements with a focus on the issues of the ultra vires review as well as the primacy of EU law. By scrutinising the FCC's case law on the issue, the author argues that the FCC's judgement is inconsistent with its own jurisprudence, and the case substantially unsuited and unwisely chosen for rendering the ultra vires verdict for the first time. Moreover, the judgement completely disregards the primacy of EU law, which not only questions the equality of EU Members but ultimately jeopardises one of the most crucial principles of the Union.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36537
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:17.409Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Department of Public Law
publisherStr Department of Public Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36537 A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law Rademann, Philipp Ally, Nurina public law The financial politics of the European Union (EU) have been highly debated ever since the 2008 crisis, which left some European countries in financial turmoil. One part of the European financial policy has been the purchase of government bonds through the European Central Bank. The most vocal critics of this policy have for a long time emerged from Europe's biggest economy – Germany. A case against the purchase of government bonds was eventually brought to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (FCC). The FCC referred the matter to the European Court of Justice, which in 2018 upheld the practice and found it legal. In May of 2020 the FCC went against the European Court of Justice and pronounced the practice of purchasing government bonds as well as the decision upholding it to be ultra vires. Although there have been other domestic courts within the EU that have overruled EU law, last years's verdict was unique in its blatant defiance of the European institutions and the primacy of EU Law. This paper analyses the two judgements with a focus on the issues of the ultra vires review as well as the primacy of EU law. By scrutinising the FCC's case law on the issue, the author argues that the FCC's judgement is inconsistent with its own jurisprudence, and the case substantially unsuited and unwisely chosen for rendering the ultra vires verdict for the first time. Moreover, the judgement completely disregards the primacy of EU law, which not only questions the equality of EU Members but ultimately jeopardises one of the most crucial principles of the Union. 2022-06-24T12:19:22Z 2022-06-24T12:19:22Z 2022 2022-06-24T11:49:16Z Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36537 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law
spellingShingle public law
Rademann, Philipp
A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
title_full A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
title_fullStr A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
title_full_unstemmed A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
title_short A critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of Germany on the European central bank's public sector purchase programme: ultra vires review and the primacy of European Law
title_sort critical reflection on the judgement of the federal constitutional court of germany on the european central bank s public sector purchase programme ultra vires review and the primacy of european law
topic public law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36537
work_keys_str_mv AT rademannphilipp acriticalreflectiononthejudgementofthefederalconstitutionalcourtofgermanyontheeuropeancentralbankspublicsectorpurchaseprogrammeultraviresreviewandtheprimacyofeuropeanlaw
AT rademannphilipp criticalreflectiononthejudgementofthefederalconstitutionalcourtofgermanyontheeuropeancentralbankspublicsectorpurchaseprogrammeultraviresreviewandtheprimacyofeuropeanlaw